Back in the summer of ‘89 you couldn’t flush the toilet without seeing a bat symbol. The colorful old 60’s series was playing in endless rotation, action figures, logo covered t-shirts and ball caps were standard issue for grade-schoolers across the country and that smokin’ hot Prince chick was doing the bat-dance nonstop on MTV. I was only 9 years old at the time and needless to say, took Batman any way I could get him. I only managed to see Tim Burton’s first crack at the character in theaters once that Summer (for my Birthday) but went on to tell tales out in the schoolyard the following September of having never blinked once during the entire run-time. Back then even more so then now, the Dark Knight was a huge deal not just to me but the human race as a species. So a video game based on what at the time seemed like the biggest goddamned movie ever was a no-brainer and for the most part Sunsoft did a good job. Batman for the NES delivers fast paced action with tight controls, great music and solid level design.

Even though for the most part, it doesn’t really have all that much to do with the actual movie.

Neo Turf Masters (also known as Big Tournament Golf) is a fantastic slice of pure, pick up and play heaven that was unleashed upon arcades around the world in 1996. Brought to us by the makers of the beloved Metal Slug, Turf Masters shockingly accomplishes the seemingly impossible: It not only makes golf fun but also…yep here we go, I’’m gonna say it…”Cool.” Cleverly approaching a sport that otherwise wouldn’t seem like a natural fit in any way to the arcade format, the developers have successfully delivered an inspired, fast paced, action experience.

You guys, this is a real good one.

With the 7th anniversary of the Nintendo Switch approaching, a lot of nerd palms have begun sweating more than usual in anticipation of the console’s inevitable successor. This means you’ll likely see plenty of retrospectives popping up here and there looking back at all of the great games that have released for the hybrid over the last now near decade. And while there are of course plenty of top shelf first and third party titles to praise, in this series let’s look back even further. Having gone through and selected some personal favorite arcade ports, I’ll be spotlighting some true must haves for anyone who misses the old days of having their sneakers stuck to God knows what on those outer space themed carpets.

Welcome to the first installment of Arcade Archaeology!

Let’s take a moment to soak this in, shall we? Here we are now in 2024 with a retro review of an 11 year old high definition remake of a 21 year old game. And one that is still tethered to Nintendo’s Wii U console, a system that somehow feels more ancient than the GameCube. And for unknown reasons that still manage to baffle, this cel-shaded installment in the series still has yet to make the leap over to the Switch. I mean, the godawful New Super Mario U has a port, so what the deuce you guys? What’s the fucking gosh-darn hold up?

Back now after a holiday break and family trip at Yosemite to ring in the New Year, I’ve got another small batch of snaps to share! It was a really tough choice to decide which amiibo figures I wanted to capture in a snowy environment. But listening to a lot of Nintendo music throughout December pulled from snow stages, the Snowpeak theme from Twilight Princess kept jumping out at me. Good thing, I didn’t sleep on that HD box set for Wii U that included Wolf Link and Midna!

Well here we are finally arriving at my number one slot on this list right as 2023 draws to a close and yes it’s true: In a year that saw Nintendo release a long awaited sequel, one knockout of a remaster and an all new return to form across their holy trinity of IP (Zelda, Metroid and Mario of course), what can I say?

It didn’t get any better than Pikmin 4.